10 Years After Attempting Suicide, 31-Year-Old Man Gets Stunning Face Transplant

Andy Sandness has come a long way from the darkness that filled his life roughly a decade ago. After falling into a deep depression in his early twenties, Andy attempted to take his own life. In a twist of fate, he survived, but his face was left horribly disfigured by the gunshot wound. Now 31 years old, Andy has undergone one of the most successful face transplants that doctors have ever seen. You have to hear read story and see the incredible transformation he has undergone since receiving a new face and a new lease on life. 

SHARE Andy's incredible transformation with your Facebook friends. This is one of the most successful face transplants I have ever seen. 

Meet Andy Sandness from the small town of Newcastle, Wyoming. 

This may be one of the last photos of Andy before a horrible incident that took place in 2006, leaving him unrecognizable. 

One day, roughly 10 years ago, at the height of an intense depression he had been experiencing, Andy decided that he was going to take his own life. 

"I just remember putting one in the chamber and looking down the barrel of the gun and I said 'ah, #$@! it' and pulled the trigger," said Andy in an interview. "I was going through some rough times, ya know, I mean I made the wrong choices," he added. 

Luckily, Andy survived the gunshot wound, but he was severely injured and immediately sent to the emergency room. 

The gunshot had obliterated portions of his lower face, including his jaw, teeth, chin, and nose. 

Andy's father can recall the day the incident happened like it was yesterday.

"The only thing I got to see was him coming out of the emergency room with his head, with gauze wrapped around, with a straw coming out to breathe in," said his father Reed Sandness. 

As you can see from the current photo, Andy was nearly missing the entire lower portion of his face, but he was still able to breathe and speak. 

A side shot demonstrates the extent of his injuries. 

For years, Andy waited for news concerning his eligibility for a face transplant. He desperately wanted to regain full function of his nose and "get good stares as opposed to bad stares," according to Andy. 

The rubber nose he wore in the mean time would fall off and, while he was glad to have survived, he wondered whether other options were possible. Eventually, specialists at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota thoroughly investigated Andy's case and eventually came to the conclusion that he may be an appropriate candidate for a face transplant. 

In early 2016, he got the news that he had a potential face donor. A team of 60 surgeons and nurses would complete a 56-hour transplant surgery to give Andy a second chance at a new face. 

"Everybody went into this totally knowing their role, knowing what to expect. Every step has been thought out 1,000 times," said head surgeon Dr. Samir Mardini. The surgery ended up going very well. 

Let's take a look at Andy's face roughly eight months after his surgery took place...

Here is Andy now, nearly one year after the surgery that gave him the face of organ donor Calen Ross. 

If you look closely you can see the scar just under his eye-level, but if didn't know Andy's story, you probably wouldn't think twice about his appearance. Amazing!

Here he is looking at his new face with physical therapist Helga Smars.

In a touching moment after the surgery had taken place, Andy handed his doctors a hand-written note saying "Far exceeded my expectations." 

Andy is still recovering from his surgery and has undergone further meetings with doctors at the Mayo Clinic, but as you can see, things are going very well for him. 

Things are going so well, in fact, that, for the first time in years, a child met him in the elevator and didn't react in a negative way to his face. Having a normal interaction in public meant a lot to Andy, and when describing this moment said, "I knew then, that the surgery was a success."

Here is a video segment from the Mayo Clinic detailing Andy's incredible transformation.

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